Over the last couple of weeks this was hard work with almost two years of preparations. Now it's done: Steamboats.org and the Message Board is on the most recent technical level and the content is up to date. We hope you'll like it! Comments (and bug reports, if any) are welcome by e-mail or in the "River Talk & Cruises" Forum.

Announcement

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No announcement yet.

Message Boards help

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Here you can find answers to questions about how the board works. Use the links or search box below to find your way around.

Select this option if you would like your search to look in the text of help items as well as their titles.

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Select an option here to specify how you would like your search query to be treated. 'Any words' will return the most numerous but possibly least relevant results, while 'Complete phrase' will return only results that contain exactly what you are searching for.

Basic Help and Instructions

Basic instructions for the new Steamboats.org Message Board

register / login

In order to post a message you need to be logged in.

You don't need to be logged in if you just want to read messages, but I highly recommend to login at any time to enjoy all features available.

The Remember Me checkbox at login enables you to stay logged in as long as you do not click on the log out link. Even if you come back many days later you'll still be logged in. Important: Always click on log out when you're not at home at your personal computer but e.g. at a public library!

user name and password

You can re-use your user name and password from the old message board in case you've signed up there already. If you don't have a username and password yet, please register here: www.steamboats.org/forum/register. Just follow the instructions there. After successfully registering you'll receive an e-mail with an activation link you need to click on to finalize your registration.

To change your password, login and then go to the User Control Panel and there to Edit Email & Password, or just go directly to this page with this link: www.steamboats.org/forum/settings/account and change your password to what ever is convenient for you.

navigating through the forums

(remark: most of the following applies only when you're logged in.)

back to the forums homepage, forum overview
In the upper left area you'll always find the link Forums. This link will always bring you back to the start page you see after you've logged into the message board. Go there when you feel lost.

overview over new postings
To find out which postings are new since your last visit, simply use the Latest Activity tab in the upper horizontal navigation bar.

reading messages

When logged in different to the old message board with just one forum you'll find three different forums - I've split this up because in the old message board new postings did disappeare too fast as there simply had been too many postings every day for just one forum. Also, the three different forums will give you more room for slightly off-topic postings.

Steamboats & History
This is the core forum, closest to the old message board, covering everything around steamboats, paddlewheelers, history, etc.

River Talk
This forum is meant for every discussion that is related to the rivers, towboating, etc. that is not directly linked to steamboats.

River Cruises
Discuss your experience on river cruises, not only on the US rivers, but also in Europe, China, Amazon River and other territories.

Please don't worry too much about whether your posting is in the right forum. Just post it where you think it's okay and you're fine. I'll always be able to move a posting to a different forum at any time, so no problem at all.

posting new messages

To post a new message (not a reply), just go to the forum you want to post to and click on the new thread button. You only need to fill in the subject (Title) and your message and then click on Submit New Thread when you want to post directly or Preview Post if you want to check your posting before finally posting it. You do not need to change anything in the Additional Options; for the beginning just ignore them. If you know what you're doing, feel free to use these additional features, of course.

posting a reply

To post a reply to a message, scroll down the page until you see the Quick Reply box. Put your reply into the text box and click on Post Quick Reply. If you want to use the additional options for posting a message, click on Go Advanced and you'll get the same screen as when posting a new thread (see above) with additional options like posting pictures, etc.

View a list of all new postings since your last visit

Just click on New Posts. This feature is category-independent, so you get all threads with new postings from all categories/forums.

How to recognize which specific message is new?

Look at the column on the left of the threads/messages listings: When you see a orange colored envelope, then you haven't read at least one of the messages in this thread yet. Blue colored envelopes are marking threads you've read before already. In the thread view unread messages are marked by little blue and orange colored rectangles in front of the posting title.

The Steamboats.org Message Board is a semi-moderated discussion board for exchanging relevant information
about steamboats, paddlewheelers, riverboats, the US inland rivers and related stuff. Its
primary purpose is to facilitate the exchange of information, advice, suggestions,
and discussion about facts and history, not to serve as a forum for chatting and exchanging personal messages
(please use e-mail or private messages for these purposes).

Registration is only being accepted with your full real name (first and last name), while first and last name must be separated by a blank. Please contact the
moderators before registering when you have a good reason for posting anonymously.
The purpose of this guideline is to try and keep information posted on the Steamboats.org Message Board
as accurate as possible by asking people to stand behind their posts.

The Steamboats.org Message Board requires all posters to adhere to a high standard of courtesy and civility.
Polite, constructive criticism, and polite responses to same, are acceptable. Insulting or inflammatory language; explicit language;
argument and debate for their own sake; and personal attacks on other posters ("flaming") are all prohibited.
Please note that this standard is inherently subjective, and is considerably more restrictive than the standards
on many other forums. Some people may not find it possible to express their full views and stay within this guideline.
Other people may have legitimate philosophical objections to posting under inherently subjective moderation. In either
case, we must respectfully ask them to express their views in other forums than this one. No profanity. There will be
zero tolerance for this, and posts containing profanity will be deleted on sight.

Defining what constitutes uncourteous, uncivil, or unconstructive speech, and deciding when continued discussion
of a subject is no longer constructive, shall be within the sole discretion of the moderators. They may choose to
issue a back-channel warning, may delete posts without warning, or may close threads to new posts. Where possible,
the moderators will try to explain the cause for their decisions, either back channel or through an announcement
on the board.

Commercial advertising is allowed on a case-by-case basis. In general, we do not want to see a great deal
of regular commercial advertising on the board. However, do encourage people to announce the availability
of products and services of immediate relevance to other posters. If you have something for sale that may
be of interest to the list, please ask the moderators
for permission first.